The present invention relates to a tape cartridge with increased tape capacity.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,262,860 discloses an improved tape cartridge with length dimension significantly greater than prior art cartridges of similar application. Two tape packs and a drive belt are disposed in a cartridge housing to permit tape packs having increased tape capacity. The cartridge housing is so designed as to interfere with a tape cartridge drive and has a front planar face with an opening for receiving a recording/reproducing head. This housing has a substantially rectangular base plate which is substantially perpendicular to the front face. The two tape packs, namely a first tape pack and a second tape pack are rotatably mounted in the housing about a first and second fixed axes of rotation, respectively. The first axis of rotation is aligned laterally relative to the second axis of rotation with a straight line projecting through the first and second axes of rotation intersecting the plane of the front face at an acute angle. Alternatively, the second axis of rotation is located intermediate the first axis of rotation and the plane of the front face along a line segment extending parallel to the base plate passing through the first axis of rotation and the plane of the front face. The drive belt is an endless belt of a flexible elastic material. The belt is wrapped over a plurality of rollers which include a driven roller adapted to contact a driving roller of a tape drive when the tape cartridge is inserted into the tape drive. According to this known tape cartridge, since width of the rectangular base plate is determined by the design of the tape drive, the maximum diameter of a tape pack which can be arranged in the housing is limited by the width of the base plate even if the length of the base plate is increased.
An object of the present invention is to provide a tape cartridge which permits tape packs of significantly increased capacity that is not limited by the design of the tape drive.
A specific object of the present invention is to provide a mirror image cartridge of the above character which permits tape packs of significantly increased capacity and which is not limited by the design of the tape drive.